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Bangalore: Having been what he thought was the victim of a miscarriage of cricket justice, David Warner says he wants to see greater accountability from on and off-field umpires, even to the extent of displaying their accuracy ratings on scoreboard screens.
When Warner was struck on the back pad by Sri Lankan left-armer Dilsan Madushanka at Lucknow on Monday, he was given out lbw by umpire Joel Wilson on the field and immediately called for a review, only for TV umpire Chris Brown to affirm the decision.
Warner, like everyone else, watched the decision unfold on the big screen.
“Normally when something hits me on the leg on the outside, I know it’s pretty much going down leg. I asked Joel when I was out there … why did he give it out? He said the ball was swinging back,” the batsman said.
“From my perspective on the replay, it wasn’t. When you see on the replay how it unfolded, you get a little bit annoyed.”
Annoyed, Warner bashed his bat into the ground as he left, and afterwards was not seen for some time in the change rooms.
David Warner leaves the crease annoyed at his lbw dismissal against Sri Lanka on Monday.Credit: AP
Speaking the next day, Warner said he would like to see umpires’ statistics on the scoreboard screen.
“Players’ stats go up on the board as you walk out to bat,” he said. “When they announce the umpires, I’d love to see their stats come up on the board as well. The NRL does it. I think the NFL does it. It’s a great thing for the spectators to see as well.”
Warner said he knew umpires had their personal proclivities.
“You definitely know which umpires are going to give those 50-50 ones when it hits the pad, and that’s where from my perspective it gets frustrating,” he said. “There’s no bias in anything. It’s just that you feel that as a player sometimes.”
David Warner takes a spectacular catch to get Sri Lanka’s Kusal Mendis in Monday night’s World Cup match.Credit: AP
But he said his comments were not aimed at any particular umpires. Rather, he thought umpires, like players, should be answerable for their performances.
“There has to be some accountability,” he said. “If you get a decision wrong, just accept it and apologise. Players aren’t going to bite your head off. Umpires aren’t going to bite your head off if you ask them the question. They’re generally pretty honest.
“You see it with the bunker in the NRL. You get absolute stinkers and some umpires don’t umpire the next game.”
There’s no doubt that the decision review system, or DRS, has been at times quirky in this tournament. It’s been slow, as Warner noted. And, more than once, it has produced decisions that have surprised watchers near and far. In Australia’s heavy defeat by South Africa, Steve Smith and Marcus Stoinis were both given out on review, decisions that belied the naked eye.
Warner said this was frustrating, but he admitted that no one had ever explained to players how Hawkeye worked. If they did, he said, players might be more selective in referring decisions.
Warner has made a modest start to his last international tournament, with scores of 41, 13 and 11. But on Monday, he had an impact in the field, taking two brilliant running outfield catches whose athleticism was not done justice by television’s foreshortening effect. The first broke a 125-run opening partnership for Sri Lanka and precipitated their collapse.
The thing to remember is that Warner is 36 and a lot. “I pride myself on my fitness, so now I keep taking the mickey out of a lot of the guys here,” he said. “I’m almost 37, running around like a little bulldog in the outfield. It comes down to attitude. And that’s what fielding is; it’s all about attitude.
“Get 10 pieces of laundry, dive around, throw yourself around, and try and take those match-winning catches that can turn the game.” The mind’s eye moves to Warner’s hotel room and blinks. Come back Candice, all is forgiven.
“You see people half commit,” Warner said. “I’d rather commit and [have] it go for four when I’m trying to take a catch or save a boundary. For me, it’s a non-negotiable.”
Warner, a natural aggressor, has been the constant at the top of Australia’s order in all forms for more than a decade. For this tournament, his partner was to be the even-more-aggressive Travis Head, and the pairing was developing well until Head broke his hand in the prelude.
Now it is Mitch Marsh, whose bent for attack is so strong that he hit a lofted straight drive for four on the first ball of Australia’s innings on Monday. If and when Head returns, Marsh will probably revert to No 3.
Warner said he enjoyed the premium on the first 10 overs now in 50-over cricket and the different ways of going about it. “With Mitch, we rotate quite a lot. With Heady, we just stand and deliver. That’s just what we do,” he said.
“Going out in a one-day international, trying to take the game on in the first 10 [overs], it’s like T20. You just don’t know what to do when you get outside 10. There’s still 40 overs to go. You feel like you can get 200 every game. It doesn’t happen that way.
“I can go out there and try to hit a six every ball if I want, but it’s not what the team needs. For me, it’s about trying to bat for 35 or 40 overs, do my job well at a good strike rate. A strike rate over 95 in one-day cricket is pretty good.”
Warner was nearby on Monday when Mitch Starc gave Sri Lanka opener Kusal Perrera a Mankad warning, then another.
“To be fair, if you warn someone, you’d think that they wouldn’t do it [again],” he said.
“That’s just a perfect example of ignorance and arrogance in a way; just not listening.”
Warner said that in his experience, backing up early was a habit rather than a conscious effort to try to steal a run.
“I remember Ed Cowan used to do it all the time without even noticing,” he said. “And he was still horrendous between wickets, even though he had a three-metre advantage.”
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